Smith & Hawken Store to Close

I was sorry to read that not only is our lovely Los Gatos Smith & Hawkin store to close, but all of the stores around the country are closing, with 700 employees losing their jobs.  Apparently it will be closed sometime this calendar year, with sales ongoing between now and then.

http://all4freehere.com/2009/07/smith-and-hawken-will-be-shut-down/

Although I would never claim to have a green thumb, this is a store I really love to visit, and I will miss it.

Re-Employment Group in Los Gatos

Congregation Shir Hadash formed a Re-employment group in February of 2009 to provide skill building programs and mutual support for the local South Bay Jewish community and is welcoming the wider community to participate.  Meetings are every other Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:30am.  Dave Slesnick, an HR professional and congregant, is coordinating the group.

For more information, please contact Rabbi Melanie Aron at 358-1751 x 4 or RabbiAron@ShirHadash.org. On Linked In? Log in, search for the group "Congregation Shir Hadash Re-Employment Group" and request to join it.  If you have job leads to share, please write to jobs@ShirHadash.org.

July 4th 2009 in Los Gatos: Many Festivities!

From 11am until 5:30pm, there will be loads of fun events to celebrate Independence Day in downtown Los Gatos. The town has a flyer with detailed information on the entertainment (music, dancing, games) and more.  Happy Fourth of July!

Los Gatos Residential Real Estate Over Last Two Years

How's the Los Gatos housing market now and over the last two years?  The "supply and demand" graph gives a good visual clue as to the challenge of selling in this corner of SiliconValley. Relative to what's on the market, only a few Los Gatos homes are selling. (Charts and data per Clarus Matrix, a perk of our MLS and real estate board.)

Pricing (or "home value") is perhaps the most important thing to home owners. "What's my home worth?" is the question. Prices are improving in some segments of the market - homes "in the schools" and under about 1 million are in very high demand and that may be pushing prices upward.

The "months of inventory" or absorption rate indicates how long it would take Los Gatos homes for sale to be absorbed by buyers if homes continued to sell at the current rate per month and no new inventory came on the market. (Less than 6 months is a sellers market, more than 6 a buyers market.)

 The chart below would have us thinking that the sellers are very happy and that homes are fying off the market - the first chart, though, tells the broader picture of supply & demand. What IS happening, then? Some Los Gatos homes in some prices are selling really well, but many others languish.

Inventory is now declining. This is more acute in some price points and school districts than others, but overall, the available supply of Los Gatos real estate for sale is now noticeably less than at the peak.

The average days on market for Los Gatos homes for sale has jumped around quite a bit. We do seem to be past the peak - but with so much "up & down", it's hard to be sure. Let's hope that the worst is behind us.

A look at all the charts collectively would seem to indicate that although the market is tough on sellers and great for buyers overall, as a whole the town may have already hit its bottom.  We won't know unless things are stable and continue improving for another year or so.  And, of course, this is "general information" for our town. Your particular neighborhood could be behaving very differently since micro markets are very important here.  Please call or email me for information on your particular market.

Political Donations by Los Gatans: How Much Did We Give?

Today I stumbled upon an interesting demographics tool:  a map (and list) showing political donations in the last presidential election by city, particular address, by the donor's occupation, employer or last name.  It's on the Huffington Post and appears to search nationwide.  It is not 100% complete, though.  I actually made a donation in the last election but my name and info are not showing up - I believe that this may not have included donations in the last few weeks of the election for tha treason (that's when I sent my donation in).  Anyway, have a look around - it's interesting!

The site states that for Los Gatos:

"$1,073,805 was given by people who identified their city as "Los Gatos, CA".
$280,419 from 256 people to Republicans (av = $1095 each)
$793,386 from 773 people to Democrats" (av = $1026 each)

In neighboring Saratoga:

$1,272,097 was given by people who identified their city as "Saratoga, CA".
$456,436 from 264 people to Republicans (av = $1729 each)
$815,661 from 579 people to Democrats  (av = $1409 each)

And in Monte Sereno:

$39,448 from 36 people to Republicans (av = $1095 each)
$171,415 from 93 people to Democrats (av = $1843 each)

Interested in other areas? Start your search here on the San Jose page and then look for whatever criteria you want to use.

Proactively Look for Construction or Remodeling Defects

Although a lot of my work is in Los Gatos, Cambrian Park, Saratoga, and Almaden Valley, I do have buyer and seller clients all over San Jose and Silicon Valley. One of my buyers is interested in neighborhoods close to downtown San Jose such as Japantown, the Vendome area, and Naglee Park.

This week we saw a classic, historic Spanish style home that offered a lot of "old San Jose" charm.  It was partially updated and remodeled but there were a few red flags and odd things about the home.

One of the oddities involved the roof, downspouts and gutters.  Here's a view of the back end of that home.  Please note the downspout in the center of the photo (it meanders around the window with a large catch-basin at the top). 

Do you see anything amiss?  If not, have a look again with my annotated version:

The home was re-roofed a number of years ago, with permits and finals - but without gutters.

Do gutters and downspouts matter all that much? You bet they do. For more information on that topic, please read "Cracked Foundations, Adobe Clay Soils and Water in Silicon Valley" on my ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com blog.

Monte Sereno In Depth Real Estate Market Report

In addition to doing a post comparing Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, and Saratoga today, I also did one on just the Monte Sereno real estate market in my other blog at ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com. If you are tracking the Monte Sereno housing market, please have a look at this article, which discusses the days on market, inventory level, percentage of homes relisting, and pricing trends.  Find it on the ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com site or click directly on this link:

Monte Sereno: How’s the Market?